Boys soccer revived at Kenner Collegiate
Influx of international students leads to return of sport for the Rams for first time in 25 years
A student led initiative has brought boys soccer back to Kenner Collegiate after a 25-year absence.
An influx of international students at Kenner the past couple of years led to some of them approaching coach Will Seeley about fielding a soccer team.
Seeley had coached Rams football in the past but dwindling enrolment numbers made it increasingly difficult to field a gridiron squad, let alone a competitive one.
“We’ve always had great soccer players walking around the building,” Seeley said.
“We always got them to play football or volleyball and they were always good sports about it. As our numbers dwindled we couldn’t compete in football so we thought we’d try to run a positive sports program and so we’re trying to build a soccer program.”
They decided to start with a junior team this year and hope to expand to senior next year. The intermediate grades also have soccer teams which can help feed the high school program.
Hussein Hashem came to Canada from Egypt and along with Ashton Roche plays rep soccer for Peterborough City. They helped lobby for the team which also features students from Costa Rica, Pakistan, Turkey and Syria’s Ali Hatab who scored the Rams first goal in 25 years against I.E. Weldon in Lindsay earlier in the season. Hashem and Roche scored two goals each in a 4-2 win Wednesday over the Lindsay Collegiate Spartans at Kenner.
“We wanted to change things up at Kenner,” Hashem said. “We wanted to create more school spirit and have people come out and watch.”
“We had a team in Grade 7 and 8,” Roche said.
“When I came to high school I heard there was no team. I heard Hussein was transferring to our school and I thought it was a prefect chance to get a team with two City boys. Our football team wasn’t doing that great so we decided to get a soccer team together. We’re actually winning some games which is great.”
They even convinced a football player like Wesley Evans to give soccer a try.
“I was kind of happy to be doing something new this year because we pretty much lost every game (in football),” Evans said.
The team has performed well beyond their wildest expectations. They have two wins to go along with two ties and one loss to sit in second place in Kawartha. They will host Belleville’s Nicholson for the COSSA A championship in two weeks.
Roche says their heart is the reason they’ve done well.
“We didn’t really know what we were getting into so we didn’t really have any expectations,” Roche said. “We didn’t come in cocky. We’re just playing soccer.”
“We’re off to a great start,” Seeley said.
“I have two kids who play City soccer and you can build a program around two kids like that. Peterborough is getting a lot more multicultural than it’s ever been. All the soccer teams in the city have tons of kids from somewhere else. It makes them feel comfortable at their school and helps them fit in.”
Hashem said just getting a team on the field made the season a success regardless of results.
“High school soccer is for fun but we also want to represent one another and look out for one another,” Hashem said.
“It will build our relationship during school and our friendship. Winning or not winning any games it still brought us closer to one another.”